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Int'l aid delivered to Yemen to cope with health crisis

Xinhua, June 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that health kits, IV fluids and other essential medicines have been delivered to health facilities in four governorates in Yemen in the past week, for the treatment of more than 438,000 people, including treatment of patients with dengue fever, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here Tuesday.

A new analysis released by OCHA showed that in the first three weeks of June, only 11 percent of the estimated total monthly fuel requirements for Yemen have been delivered, Dujarric said at a daily news briefing. "This compares to 18 percent for May, 1 percent for April, and 23 percent for March."

"Commercial shipping is slowly increasing, but remains constrained by port congestion, uncertainty over coalition searches, and high fees related to the time spent by ships waiting to dock," he said. "This is contributing to massive food insecurity."

The UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) is flying regularly from Djibouti to Sana'a every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, he noted.

Thousands of suspected cases of the mosquito-borne viral infection Dengue fever have been reported in conflict-ravaged Yemen, where a major health crisis is unfolding, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Tuesday.

WHO said that more than 3,000 suspected cases of Dengue had been reported in Yemen since March 20 with some non-governmental organizations flagging more than 6,000 cases.

The latest development comes just days after WHO said Yemen's health system is on the verge of breakdown. Hospitals have been destroyed, health workers killed, and critical shortages of food, medical supplies and fuel are causing large-scale suffering.

Dengue fever is a severe, flu-like illness that affects infants, young children and adults, but seldom causes death, according to a WHO factsheet, which also says there is no specific treatment for dengue fever but early detection and access to proper medical care lowers fatality rates below 1 percent. Endite